Female guard strangled at Uncle Eddie’s Home

May 28, 2009 News

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– thieves cart off refrigerator, TV, microwave oven

 

By Dale Andrews

Early yesterday morning bandits turned the normally tranquil Uncle Eddie’s Home in Tucville into a murder scene, with the brutal slaying of a female security guard during a brazen break and enter.
Simone Coleridge, 43, was the lone guard at the benevolent home when the thieves struck about 02:00 hours. When they were finished, Coleridge’s sexually violated body was left lying near a sofa in the lobby and several of the residents were shivering in fear.

 

The security guard who resided at Queen Street, Rosemary Lane (Tiger Bay) was apparently strangled.
Her mouth was taped, her hands tied behind her back and both feet were bound by the thieves who escaped with a small refrigerator, a microwave oven and a television set in what appeared to be a vengeful attack.
Police have since recovered the items which were stashed at a location across the road from the home. Officials at the institution were hesitant to speak to the media who had turned up at the scene minutes after news filtered out.
They claimed that they were instructed by investigators not to divulge any information.
However this newspaper was told that the bandits gained entry by prising open a northern door and after severing the telephone lines they immediately confronted Coleridge who was sitting in the eastern section of the home.
After making sure that she was neutralized, they them proceeded to ransack the premises, raiding the rooms of several inmates in the process.
It is not clear how many thieves went into the premises but there were more than two since items such as a refrigerator and the television set and he microwave were removed and there were other items packed and ready to be carted off.
The source said that an alarm was raised by one of the residents of the home when one of the thieves tried to enter her room.
“She had she wheelchair behind the door and when he push it, the wheelchair make noise and she wake up and see the move. She start to holler and the other people wake up. De man run and left everything. All them things de done pack up,” the source said. But they had already killed Coleridge.
One of the caregivers at the Uncle Eddie’s Home, Nurse Bacchus, recalled that she was at home when news of the tragedy was relayed to her.
“I was at home; the night person was here. She called me and told me that there was a break and enter and she cannot find the guard. So I tell her to look around and when she called back she said that they found the guard covered with the chair cushions. That’s all I know. When I get here, the police were already here,” Bacchus told the media.
Kaieteur News understands that a police mobile patrol that was in the vicinity responded promptly upon receipt of the information of a break in at the home.
However, after combing the area, they came up empty-handed in terms of catching the bandits.
Another employee at the home told the media that the institution has had its fair share of breakages over the past years.
“A year does not go by when this place is not broken into,” the employee stated.
The employee said that the residents would not usually close their individual doors at night since they feel secure in the home.
A source attached to the RK Security firm told the media that Coleridge was not an armed guard since the home did not request such type of security. 
When this newspaper visited the woman’s home in Tiger Bay around 05:00 hours yesterday, her reputed husband had just received news of her death.
He was so emotional that he kept walking back and forth trying to come to grips with what he had just been told. “Two people come and tell me, ‘Mauby, Simone dead’.”
Her cousin, Nicola Klass and other residents of the community were all in shock since they claimed that they had seen Coleridge just before she left for work.
They were all convinced that the mother of one died doing her job to the best of her ability
Onika Charles, a friend of the dead woman, told members of the media that a month ago Coleridge had reported two confrontations she had on two separate occasions with a man who had attempted to break into the building during the night.
“De fus time he come she chase he, and he come back again and was she and he,” Charles said.
The friends said that Coleridge was very dedicated to her work and took pride in protecting the old people’s home where she had been stationed for the past several months.
Investigators have taken statements from the residents of the home and this newspaper was reliably informed that they were also given a description of one of the perpetrators.

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